Game IdeasCricket 99 Game Ideas

This is a list of ideas I have that should be implemented in Cricket 99.
Some things I have written I know will be difficult to implement. However there are also many things that are necessary for Cricket 99 to be an excellent game. If all these ideas were implemented it would be my dream game, I'd probably play it more than any game ever before....

Note: New ideas are listed down the bottom of the page...

Things that should be in 97 (and definately 99) and they should release a patch for:
Computer batsmen should slide bats when running between wickets.
You should be able to place fielders in the outfield. THIS ONE'S A SHOCKER!!

Now things they should, nay must implement in cricket 99:

Characters:
Characters should have many defineable features, eg. hair colour, skin colour, hair cut, height, width etc. so you can at least sort of tell who is who in the field from a glance. For example, Shane Warne would have short blond hair, average height, and be a bit chubby. :)

Batting:
The different types of shots they have now is excellent. They should keep it this way. Also what is good is the fact that players take a while to get into stride. This is good because when you take a wicket it actually slows the run rate. Speaking of run rates, it is also good that the run rate is usually quite realistic unlike the 20 an over in C96. :)
They should however add a 'charge' button. This would cause the batsmen to charge down the crease. Then press the selected shot when the ball is in the right place. There should be more chance of getting a nick here and also getting stumped. If you connect however, the ball should go in the air a long way.
When a batsmen gets out there should be an automatic reply of the dismissal in slow motion with the batsmen's stats down the bottom (runs/balls face/dismissal type etc). That batsmen should walk off and the new batsmen should walk on showing there career stats (which I'll get onto later).
When a batsman is running and you tell him to slide the bat he should put in a little extra effort to run a bit faster, stretch his arms as far as possible, and run right past the wicket instead of stopping straight away..this will look better in replays and be more realistic.
The computer batting is excellent in 97 ATE. It is good that they are attacking and hard to bowl/catch out and can actually set challenging scores. However they don't slide their bat to the crease so they are easily run out. They should dive also if the need be so.
One thing they don't seem to do is take note of how many runs they need to run. It would be good if they actually responded differently in different situations.
Also, in the last five overs they should just go hard out even if they are new to the crease. When chasing, they should try to keep with the run rate. I was playing a game where Ian Healy need 14 of the last over to win. He blocked the first 4, left the 5th, blocked the 6th. That game was quite exciting until that last over. This should be fixed.
Half centuries should show the batsmen waving to the crowd...team mate patting on the back etc. A century should be hats off and acknoledgement around the ground.

Bowling:
Off spinners shouldn't be able to bowl leg spinners. Selected leg spinners should be able to bowl the wrong-in however.
Make the swing more realistic when bowling slow balls. Slow balls seem to go crazy for lots of deliveries...eg. a slow arm ball from a spinner goes incredibly slow while a slow off cutter by a fast bowler spins WAY to much...right across the pitch sometimes. Otherwise the bowling options are quite good.
When a batsmen is dismissed the fielding team should go crazy and jump around and hug each other etc. At the moment it's just 'yay' and nothing more.
At the end of the over under the batting scorecard the two current bowler's figures should be included. The bowlers career stats should be shown every now and again (once again.. career stats will be dealt with later) :)
When the computer bowls the bowlers used should be realistic. That is, starting with the two fast bowlers and not switching to non-bowlers in the third over, take off people who are getting thrashed, use your best bowlers for the end etc.
There should be a couple of different styles of bowling per bowling type (eg. two different leg spin actions) to make it even more realistic and to add variation.
When a bowler bowls they should DEFINATELY have a follow through. They should find it hard to field compared to usual and fast bowlers should only catch balls hit straight back to them. When an appeal is made they should yell it loud and put there hands out pleading until the umpire makes his decision...which shouldn't always be straight away. If a bowler thinks it is out and the umpire doesn't, the bowler should be annoyed. One thing this current version is lacking is any emotion.

Fielding:
A definate need is for a mini view of the field in the bottom right hand corner or something showing dots where the fielders are, like in those old brian lara/graham gooch/aussie dude games (about 3cm diameter or something). This way you can quickly tell where everyone is. It takes too long currently. Also, if you are the fielding team, you should be able to click and drag players with the mouse at any time on that little mini field. This would save HEAPS of time and would encourage people to change their field to suit the conditions. Also, resting the mouse cursor on a dot would display the person's name so you know who is fielding where (if it's jonty rhodes in the covers, hit the ball somewhere else!).
As stated at the top of this page..ALLOW PLAYERS TO FIELD IN THE OUTFIELD!!! This sux in 97 ATE, you can only put fielders out a small way from the wickets!! IT'S SO STUPID!! You should be able to put people right on the boundry.
The computer should arrange it's field better, eg. if 2 fours are hit in an unprotected area someone should go there. Also more pressure should be applied to a batsmen say on 49.
The wicket keeper is a shocker at the moment for spin bowlers. He crouches miles away (exaggeration, but you know) from the wicket making it nearly impossible to stump anyone! He should be right up by the wickets ready to stump anyone who charges (see 'batting' above hehe) and misses. Also the occasional 'well bowled' and wicket-keeper talk would be quite good.

The Crowd:
I don't really mind what the crowd look like but what is important is the noise they make. :) The normal crowd noise at the moment is making me go crazy because every few seconds there is this wailing kinda sound. In C96 there was also another noise every few seconds that sounded like 'anglebat' or something that also got annoying. I am hoping C99 won't have an annoying sound every few seconds.
At the beginning of the game, say the first 10 overs, they should be quite loud and in the first few overs even applaud singles quite loudly. Fours should make them very happy and when a six is hit they should go crazy. Wickets should make them go mental.
The more boundries there are the louder they should get..same with wickets. When there are not many boundries or wickets they should be quite quiet. Near the end of the innings they should start getting excited again.
Half centuries and centuries should make the crowd go semi-nuts and nuts respectively. Also the approach..eg. if the batsmen is on 99 the crowd should hush and once the ball is hit into the gap the roar should begin...
To get this properly, there should be a stadium for each country. They don't need to be different (well they can be) but what should be important is that the homecrowd is there. Eg. a game with New Zealand and Pakistan with a pakistan crowd. That crowd should be more excited when a NZ wicket falls than when a Pakistan wicket falls. :)
Test matches should be more civilised however...probably the level they are in C97 ATE.

Commentary:
I don't mind all that yabber that goes on at the moment, eg. "This really is a good ground" but they shouldn't be said in the first and last 10 overs and once the commentator has said it once in a match, he should not say it again. At the moment Richie is just repeating himself OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER....
It's good how he says the wickets/runs every now and then but he should also mention the batsmen's score, especially when approaching a (half) century. At the end of each over he should say how many runs off that over, if a wicket was taken off it etc.
Also would be good is if he said things as they were happening: 'He hits the ball into the air...a fielders getting under it....he takes the catch!' (then of course the fielding team goes crazy and a slow-mo replay is shown).
Or perhaps 'He's smashed that ball...and into the fence for four runs' or 'He's smashed that ball...but straight to a fieldsmen.'
Also some excitement from the commentator would help the atmosphere. Currently, it's 'That is a hat trick. That is superb bowling.' He should yell stuff like 'YES! HE'S GOT HIM!' and 'He's smashed that ball....STRAIGHT OVER THE HEAD OF THE BOWLER....IT'S SIX RUNS!' And he would nearly be drowned out by the crowd.
Commentary to do with the game situation is important also. If the run rate is slipping it should be said so (ok, so he does say that in ATE) but when the required rate increases that should be said and, well you know, things to do with the game situation, eg. 'New Zealand...are in real trouble here at...6 wickets for...42 runs.'
What is important is that there is a lot of variation. Lots of different ways to describe the same instance so you don't get sick of it.

Umpires:
First of all, the square leg umpire should signal run out decisions down that end not the other umpire.
Umpires should take there time sometimes with lbw's unless it is absolutely plum.
THIRD UMPIRE!!! When a close run-out/stumping occurs the signal should be made for the third umpire. Then the fielding team should celebrate a bit and a slow motion replay side on to the wicket with the batter running in with his arms stretched out (see batting) and the ball approaching the wicket....this should be slow motion and frame by frame and eventually paused when the ball hits the stumps. Then it shows the 3rd umpires lights and the batsman waiting for the decision, like they do on tv. The light should go red or green and the crowd should react accordingly depending on who they support.
Wides should be judged differently for ODI's and test matches. Anything down leg should be wided in ODI's. Test matches allow for a bit of lee-way on both sides of the wicket.
No balls should be given when:
* In an ODI when a bouncer is bowled
* In a test match when 2 (or is that three) bounces are bowled in an over
* When the front foot goes over the popping crease (watch a replay of a no ball at the moment - it's often on the line NOT over it)
* In an ODI in overs 1-15 when there are over 2 fielders in the outfield
* In an ODI in overs 16-50 when there are more than 5(?) fielders in the outfield
* In an ODI when there are not 2 men catching (first fifteen overs only?)
Also, the umpires should keep quite...they should be seen and not heard.

Teams:
All 9 test nations should be present with REAL players and if possible portraits. You should be able to download updated teams off their website.
The teams should be in 2 categories...Test and ODI. If you chose to do a test match with Australia for example, the Australian test team would come up so Gilchrist won't be wicket keeper (sorry if this is out of date when you read it).
When you pick a team order, that should be saved for next time you pick it (you can do this with custom teams, but the set teams don't do this). Each person's career stats should be shown also.

Career Stats:
Ok, I have thought long and hard about this, and this is what I have concluded. Career Stats is an option. If you turn it on, you enter your name and then you choose your side. Whenever you play as that name you will always have that side. I would put my name as Daniel and choose New Zealand, for example. Whenever I play with Career Stats on and have selected the stats to be in the Daniel file I would pick the team to play against, with me automatically as New Zealand.
For that game I play, the computer would remember EVERYTHING...batsmen and bowling figures for both teams...number of fours and sixes hit for each player and the whole innings, partnerships...EVERYTHING. The stats of a player would be updated when the game was completed.
When a batsmen comes out for my team his photo (if available) is shown along with his Career Stats...Matches/Innings/runs /balls faced/average/strike rate/50's/100's/ducks/no's/high score with the date and who against, and any other information. The bowlers stats could also be down the bottom.
By saving almost everything about a game, you could have cool statistics down the bottom of the screen while playing, eg. highest partnership, highest partnership for the 3rd wicket, highest partnership against the opposition, or matches played against the opposition and the number won and lost and things like world record high scores.
The reason the stats should be this way is so that if you want to just go out and thrash the ball or just have a practice match or whatever you can without damaging your stats if you turn career stats off. Also, by only being able to play as the selected team it makes it so it doesn't get messy when you start playing as another team.
To get an idea of what I mean Click Here.

General:
The World Challenge should be extended to have 8 games each then 3 finals. N.R.R. might actually come in handy a bit more.
Having a world cup with all teams competing would be nice.
Menu macros, eg. by using my macro it would automatically choose a one player game of an ODI with 50 overs using New Zealand. That would be good.
Test matches should be over 5 days with 90 overs per day. The 'declaration' button might come in handy.
Day/Night games where you start in the day and in the second innings the lights go on and it looks like lights (four shadows per player, iluminated field etc.)
A tour maybe? You know, have a test series, a few one dayers against the same team at their home ground. :)
More camera views - user definable. Esp. have side on camera's to the stumps so you can see run outs, which was discussed earlier. :)
The wickets MUST stop collapsing! NOW!!! One thing i'm annoyed with is what happens to the wickets when the ball hits. I know they took the easy way, but I think they should put a bit of time into making the wickets more realistic when hit by the ball.
Stump cam at both ends. It would be cool if they moved around when the ball hits the wickets.
No in-game FMV.
No FMV when you save the game.
No FMV when you quit.

And lotsa other stuff!
The following ideas were submitted by you, the viewer. :) If you have anything you would like to add then please email me.

The following were submitted by Brendon Harding:
 At the beginning of each over the bowler's name and stats should be shown and you should be notified of bowling changes. Same with batsmen.
It would be really nice to have a different stadium for each country, eg. size, stadium design, different scenery outside the stadium, different colour wicket and grass for the different weather conditions etc.
They should improve the game so the sweep shot and reverse sweep shot can be executed more easily and used on other balls apart from the ones pitched around yorker length.
And now one from Nick Raman:
 I have been thinking of an idea that would be great for the game, a highlight reel where you can see the best strokes, wickets and other highlights.
Graham Dean of South Africa writes:
1)You should be able to save specific field settings for each bowler, so that U don't have to keep on changing the field.
2)In a test match you should have sessions:
1 2hour session before lunch(and a match summary at lunch) then another 2hour session before tea and then a summary. And then 2hours before the end of the day and then a full match summary at the end of the day, describing what has to be done the next morning and an outlook of the match. (The above times are not specifically real-time.)��
3)Before play each day there should be a pitch report and weather report.(The pitch should deteriorate over the 5 days and the weather should differ.)

I recieved this long email from Jeff Doidge and some of it has been mentioned earlier but I decided to post the whole thing. The writing in bold like it is now is my own comments.
 CHARACTERS:
Adding a name bar when a fielder gets the ball ie Jonty Rhodes, I can hear the batsman "NOOO!"
I have seen this successfully done in a soccer game recently with out affecting the look of the game.
It would be better if the commentator called the name. I know this would only be possible if EA got the rights to all the cricketing nations Teams.

BATTING:
You need to be able to hit over the top especially in the first 15 overs. I suggest you can do this by holding down both CTRL and ALT and one of the 8 directional keys at the same time. Doing this and pressing 5 would result in the batter charging the bowler. The batter would suffer the risk of miss-hit or missing all together but if he chose a bad ball ( see later ) or really had his eye in it should go over the in-field and depending on the timming and Aggression mode ( see later ) maybe for a 4 or 6!
Yes I think ctrl+alt together should be a charge. You press ctrl+alt when you want to start charging and then ctrl+shot type when you want to hit the ball, eg. you could step back, charge, then do an off drive to wallop over the infield (the famous Chris Cairns shot). Mishits would result in nicks to keeper/slips or missing altogether for stumping or being clean bowled. This would rely quite heavily on the actual person playing and less on the batsman which I think is good. This is how I, Daniel Flower, would like to see it anyway.

3 Levels of individuals aggression. 1 Deffence, 2 Normal, 3 Attack. This would effect everything from run rate, hitting 4's and 6's, getting out. These 3 scenarios could also be used by the computer and I would invisage them to work like this.
1 Defence; Hit ball softer, less likely to hit 4's and a 6 is almost impossible. Ball kept on ground and nudged around for 1 or 2 an over. This would be useful for a batsman to get his eye in or when you need to keep your wickets for a draw in the test match.
2 Normal; normal play good chances to hit 4 and occasional 6 and used most often.
3 Attack last few overs of a ODI an all out slog/ score runs at any cost. Player always hits the ball as hard as he can and looking for boundaries. Big chance of nicks ( that may fly to the boundary ) stumpings and being bowled. This would be used in a team managment type scenario eg " Please Chris ( Cairns ) don't go stupid out there, we need only to last 6 more overs to get a draw." etc.( Perhaps players with natural agression levels conflicting or aligning with instructions might get� +'s or� -'s? )
Manhattins and worms. These could be shown every 10 overs and include red dots for wickets etc. That would be great.
Slow run rate with new bowler. When batting you need time to ajust to the new bowler, not as much as when you first get in there but maybe an over for good batsman and more time the worse the skill.
This should also depend on the bowler's skill rating. A bad bowler should get caned from the beginning. :)
Upon reaching 50 or 100 a Wagonwheel should be shown ie red lines for 4's blue lines for 6's and white lines for singles etc. including B/F S/S S/R etc. Showing it for reaching 50 or 100 is like a little bonus for the player, also anyone who makes 50+ then gets out should have one last look at his "Wheel".
Yes this would be great, and it would be shown, of course, after the batsman has acknowledged the crowd and the instant reply is shown. :) I just got a century and the no one even clapped for me :(

I have found some glitches that no one else has seemed to pick up on. No.1 When bowling I can keep the batter almost totally scoreless by bowling the same ball everytime with either a pace or medium pace bowler. I do this by simply moving the arrow just slightly to the left or right with the medium pacers or back slightly with the pace bowlers and they play and miss every time. ending up with figures like 10-6-0-17 etc. Notice 0 wickets yet beating the bat, edge and stumps ( bouncing over the top ) everytime that really hacks me off! I dont want to return to the days of Cricket 96 where I catch everyone out for 35 runs, but come on! No.2 The batter ( all of them ) charge the bowler if he drops one short. Why have a short leg at all, and after charging casually plays the ball like any other.
I think the whole computer player's artificial intelligence should go through a major overhaul. You can put everyone in front of the wicket on the off side, drop one short, and the computer batsman still won't hook or pull it. The batsman should try to hit where the fielders aren't standing. Also if they are continually missing they should try a different shot. They should learn from their mistakes. Also when the computer is bowling it should set the field according to where the batsman just hit those 3 fours. :)

BOWLING:
The bowler should take an over to warm up, get his line and length before being able to bowl at full pace. Also bowling to many "fast" deliveries should tire him out and make him lose his line and/or length ( just as the ball is about to be bowled the arrow should move to where the ball is going to pitch and to make it fair to the batsman the ball should be considerable slower.) (To many slower deliveries might make him do the same, maybe with the exception of the medium pacer?) This could result in some interesting deliveries such as a full toss or a long hop which will be punished by the good batsman and probably by the not so good too. Of course the good bowlers may occasionally bowl a bad for no reason there skill level should drop a notch or two ( making them easier to hit), and not so good bowlers should bowl a bad delivery more often.
As with the bad deliveries so sould there be a great delivery ( increasing the bowlers skill level that ball), that straightens the batsman up or pops up to bat pad or fly's through to the slips. This ball should not automatically take a wicket but the batsman had better play the right shot.
Also the batters should get bowled a bit more, with a good inswinging yorker that takes out the leg stump or a ripper off cutter the takes the off stump out of the ground sending it summersulting toward the keeper. At the momment the stumps just collapse, I agree with Daniel very strongly here, there has to be some better animation. Nicks through to the keeper or slips? Despite it saying on the Cricket 97 ATE EA sports home page, that it is now easier to do both these thing it doesn't seem to happen to me, at all! Even after I have set up a huge slip cordin ( thingo, you know ) not even so much as a tickle. I not saying that it should be like Cricket 96 were everyone was caught out ( not in slips though ) for 35 runs. But at the moment I demolish there attack by letting them hit the occassional ball and running them out,� and with the odd catch in the outfield.
Ball spins and seems waayyy toooooo much if your on a damp wicket. And ifs its overcast forget it. Also the ball doesn't come through cleanly to the keeper after bowling a slower delivery, I know that it probably should bounce once, but not dribble along the ground. This is a big one! Yes the ball should seem and swing and spin more or less due to the conditions but hey even shane warnes magic delivery to Gatting would be green with envy if it saw what could happen in ATE if the conditions were right. This HAS to be changed in Cricket 98.( I believe this is the No.1 thing that should be changed).
I think the worst thing is the off/leg cutters that fast bowlers bowl. Since when can a fast bowler make the ball magicly turn 45 degrees? Sheesh, a slow leg/off cutter is absolutely ridiculous!

FEILDING:
A bowler should be able to set a feild up thats stays with him. The field at current has to be changed each over if you have a spinner and a pace bowler on a different ends. Also needed is the smaller overview field in the corner of the screen, that can be toggled on and off. This is not just so the bowler can change his field but also so the batter can choose his shots with out having to switch to another screen. The Wicket keeper stands to far away and misses stumpings. ( Oh that reminds me of another bug, my batman gets stumped/run out because somehow I get out of my crease even though to me it looks like i'm still in it, and the batsman just stands there and makes no attempt to get back.) Depending on a players feilding score hard ( or not so hard ) catches should be dropped. Players should yell "Catchit" and other words to that effect. Talk from the Keeper is a must, so long as it's not too repedative. Bowlers feilding ability should drop by 3 or so to reflect the difficulty of catching or stopping a full blooded straight drive and not catch it then twirl it on their finger like they do now. They should also follow through with their run. Feilding restrictions are a must please include them, aswell as " The Circle ".
The infield must be shown with a white ring.

CROWD:
More enthusiasm and excitment in respect to whats happening in the game.

COMMENTARY:
Too Repedative. I was blown away when playing soccer on a friends playstation the other day to hear the commentary. It reflected exactly what was happening in the game and more often than not it included whole paragraphs, not just phrases, decribing in great detail everything that had just happened. This was done after scoring a goal, and even to a certain extent during game play. Therefore I know it can be done especially after a boundary or wicket. I think unless he has something interesting to say that he shouldn't say it at all, well maybe once to keep the sponsors happy, but please NO MORE for the sake of my sanity.

UMPIRES:
There are only two things that I would like to add, The umpires should take abit longer to give their decision and please, please, please add in a THIRD UMPIRE!!!!

CAREER STATS: I love stats. I couldn't comprehend sitting down to watch the cricket on channel 9 with out them "Dribbling on" as my girlfriend calls it with just about every statistic they can muster, I love it and so do most other cricketing mad people like me. More Attention must be giving to Stats including Manhattens, worms, wagonwheels, run rates, partnerships etc. I also enjoy the end of my cricket season then being able to see my season/career batting and bowling average, S/R, B/B, H/S etc.Their can't be enough statistics.
Yes, I am also a 'cricketing mad person' who loves stats. This is why I record my own in a spreadsheet...check it out at the 'My Career Stats' page. I spend ages on this and dream about the game doing it automatically :)
You could encorperate statistics like this; Keep standard or real figure that dont change as an option, and use players teams statistics that could be saved after every game. Then after I have player 10 matches with Chris Cairns I can see how well I use him or Nathan Astle etc. These figures could flash up when he walks onto the ground eg after playing 2 games with Nathan Astle his real career average might be 38.45, but In the 2 games I played and saved my game stats I made 50 in my first game and a 100 in my second giving me an average of 75.00.

GENERAL:
Test matches should have time, over restrictions, including lunch and tea breaks etc so that the batter and bowler has to focus again.Weather should change, maybe even a loss of play due to wet weather and pitches should crack and open up affecting the bounce. These cracks should be visible as should foot marks for bowlers to aim for. Day/Night matches should be used. World cup challenge would be great.
Rain affecting a test match wouldn't be so bad but I might get annoyed if it did it too frequently - should be a toggle to turn it on/off.
 But most importantly the Camera angles for replays and general play should be fixed up. Cricket 97 ATE is a far better game in everyway than cricket 96 other than the main play veiw, Here I think '96 is MILES better.Obviously the graphics in '97ATE are a bit better but the camera are dull. eg side on slomo for run outs etc. Also AFL 98 has heaps better graphics than '97ATE can you please upgrade them to this quality.
I think that when a batsman is running to the crease and a run out might be even remotely close it should automatically switch to the side on cam.

In general I gave Cricket 96 3/10. The main problems where no shot selection, computer couldn't bat and everytime you hit the ball it went racing to the boundary or you got caught out.
Good Points: Nice main playing screen, easy controls.

Cricket 97 ATE rated 7/10. Main problems no catching in slips or bowling the stumps over. Camera views needed work, and a host of small bugs eg computer didn't slide bat, bowling bug as described earlier and graphics not up to the standard of other EA games.
Good Points: 18 shots, takes time to get eye in, players profile has bearing on game and many more.

In closing I see so many great soccer, baseball etc games out there that companies have put so much money into because of the size of the consumer base. I read somewhere ( on the net ) that this guy was getting upset because they didn't put there best people on it ( cricket ). Well I don't know if that true but it is obvious that Cricket 97 ATE is not as good as the other EA games Available ( icluding AFL98 ) so there must be some room for improvement. And in closing if cricket 98 jumps up in quility as much as '97 did from '96 then I can't wait for it to be released.
There won't, to my knowledge, be a cricket 98 but there will (or they were once planning for) a cricket 99.

He also added this:
I thought of something else you might want to put in your wish list and that is the deterioration of the ball. This would be especially effective for spin bowlers coming into play and the anticipation of the pace bowlers before the new ball is taken.
In test matches you should be asked (when bowling) if you want the new ball every 90 overs.

Once again, thanks to Jeff Doidge for the time he put into this.

I have also recieved another big message from Cameron Petie. This is what his email said:
 I have also attached my ideas on an ultimate cricket game that I sent to BEAM. I was linked to your page from BEAM straight after I sent it and then saw you ideas on your dream cricket game and realized I had left out a few. I was certainly surprised at some of the similarities of ideas between mine, yours and others. I really do hope that these game companies take our ideas and use them to create the cricket game we all want to play.
Amen brother. Now here's the file he attached (once again my comments are in bold):

 As an avid gamer and cricket fan I would like to express my view on cricket in gaming. When you go back to Cricket 96, it was an excellent game that finally introduced us to what cricket as a game could do. Then came Cricket 97 and what an excellent improvement it was over 96. But it still had alot of flaws. Cricket 97 Ashes Tour Edition then arrived and attempted to rectify those flaws. It was certainly an improvement with the ball going in the air, a replay, more camera views, but still I think that there were alot problems. A little more complexity and flow are the major flaws, and those and more I have tried to outline below.

Gameplay:
Stop motion was excellent way to re-enact the exact flow of cricket gameplay. The only problem was that I never really felt that flow. The only conclusion that I can come too is that too many frames were cut from the gameplay. Nooo, how could this happen. Flow is the most important factor in gameplay. Whenever I played a shot it was over in milliseconds. Where is that Mark Waugh elegant flow that I was hoping for? Where is that follow through so that I can tell the exact shot? A batsman always pauses in follow through after a shot. Even the bowlers swung their arms over so quick that I couldn't pick the ball up until after I had played my shot. Fielders I don't care so much. But there must be a visible flow from the time the bowler bowls through to the batsman playing his shot. Performance you are probably saying. We all have to upgrade our computers some day, why not set the recommended at a CPU of 200. I can tell you that I would much rather play under a low resolution of free flow than high resolution the way it is now. Maybe 3 resolutions can be made to the bridge the gap a bit, because my computer was just not quite fast enough to run it in high. And low was not good at all.

Views:
That perspective is really annoying I must say. This would be so easy if you took a television and copied exactly the way that channel 9 films bowling run up and strokeplay. The roaming camera in the ashes edition was close, except that it started from behind the bowler and not the umpire. Clarity, is the key here, just like flow is to gameplay. You want to be able to see the batsman when the bowler runs in, just like on television, and you want to be able to see the ball when you play your shot. In Cricket 97 the batsman and keeper appeared a mile away unless using the roaming camera in the tour edition. Because the game is 3D you should be able to have almost any view you want. Side-on views for replays on run outs. (this is where extra frames or the missing ones are needed to see really how close it was). 45 degree views, behind, etc.

Edges:
What are they? Totally void in Cricket 97 except for the leading edge. What are the use of slip fieldsman? They are the most important fielding position in cricket because that is where most catches are taken. The full range should be there and they should also relate to what shot the batsman plays. Faint edge and thick edge from an outswinger, leg-cutter or legspinner. Inside edge from an inswinger, off-cutter, or off spinner. Leading edge from a leg side shot played too early. Edges that go straight up in the air also. eg. An outswinger is bowled on off stump away, the batsman standing on leg stump plays an air shot to mid-wicket but instead a top edge would be the most-likely result going up and into the hands of point or cover. See the attributes below as well.
I think that the thing that depends on getting a nick or not should be the actual person playing the game - so if you play your shot to early or the wrong shot then it may get a nick - the batsman's ability should come into it also.

Strokeplay:
great! I loved the great range of strokes that you could employ in Cricket 97. But there is a huge flaw. You can't make a decision on whether you want to risk it and smash the ball over the top, or play it safe and try and play it through the field. For the 18 strokes, they should all be ground strokes, and then say by holding the shift button another 18 strokes played in the air should result. 36 in total. This is one major part of cricket and should be included in the game absolutely and definitely. This will result in more decisions too. eg. A very short ball is bowled outside off stump that reaches the height of the batsmans nose. If he played an air cut shot using shift, then the ball would go over the top for four. But if he played a ground cut shot the ball would be too high to roll the wrists properly and would subsequently play it straight to gully or point, also depending on the field placement and the batsmans precision rating.
Once again I think the charge button would be the best way. If you didn't want to charge up the pitch, you would press charge just before the ball got to you and then play your shot straight away. Perhaps if you hit the charge button, it waits half a second before the batsman charges down the pitch - this way you could use the charge button in conjunction with any shot to hit it in the air.

 Running:
A cricket pitch is 20m. The 100m at the Olympics is run at around 10s. Therefore over 20m it would be 2s. For a batsman in all his gear would probably it in about 4s. Some faster, some slower. In Cricket 97, batsmen and probably fieldsman ran way too fast. Maybe this was from cutting out too many frames. I think a stopwatch would best be used here.
I still think that when you go to slide your bat the batsman should just put in that little extra and go shooting right past the wickets. This way if you do this everytime the batsman has gone past the wickets and won't have time to get another one on the overthrow. At the moment if you dive a little bit early you just get up again and then just get run out. The graphics make it too hard to know when to dive (or am i just mental?).

My Ideas on Attributes:

Batting -
Timing
how often the ball is middled. A timing of 1 would result in alot of misses and edges. 10 would mean very very few edges unless a false stroke is made.
Precision
the ability to place the ball between the fieldsman along the ground and in the air
Strength
how powerful a batsman can hit a ball in the air. 10 means a six hitter, and a 1 would mean that a six is rare. Timing assists too.
Focus
the time the batsman takes to get their eye in.

Bowling -

Ability the ability of the bowler to create an edge or a mistimed shot off any delivery. Timing and Ability are related.
Movement
(swing, seam, spin) how far the ball moves in the air and off the pitch. Creates an edge or a miss by the amount of movement
Speed/ Type
(express, fast, medium, legspin, offspin) Some players like Paul Reiffel fall between fast and medium in the other cricket games so an extra speed would be good. *not a number

Fielding -
Catching
how often a ball is caught or dropped or fielded or miss-fielded. 1 would mean that about every 1 in 3 are dropped or miss-fielded, and 10 would mean about 1 in 50.
Throwing
how often a ball hits the stumps by a direct throw, or how close to the stumps from the outfield. Also is how fast and flat a ball is thrown. 1 would mean a looping throw from the outfield and a direct throw from the infield would hit about every 1 in 15. A direct throw for a 10 would be about 1 in 1.5.

Running -
how fast someone runs. That stopwatch will definitely have to be used here.

Player Height -
(short, medium, tall) there has to be a way to differentiate players when batting, fielding, etc. Height is one. *not a number

I think with running there shouldn't be TOO much difference between players. I remember with Cricket 96 when the fast players could actually overtake a slow player sometimes. :) You should, however, be able to tell the difference between Micheal Bevin and Ajuna Ranatunga.

Extras:
To be able to change clothing:
another way to differentiate players. When batting you should have the option of choosing what hat to wear. (Helmet, Cap, or Wide Brimmed) And if hit by a fast bowler in the head while not using the helmet, then that player has to retire hurt, or even say continue batting but with all attributes halved.
Different Stadiums:
different stadiums and ground sizes from around the world would be a great additive.
A Proper World Cup:
different systems could be used here. 8 teams and you play a knockout quarter-final, semi-final and final. Or, maybe And, 2 groups of 4 where they play each other. 3 games for each team, and then the best 2 from each group play semi-finals and then a final. A good presententation should be shown if you win. The different stadiums from certain areas around the world can be hosts for the world cup, so you would know whether that area is bouncy or slow, is humid or cold.
Custom Teams:
You should be able to choose your own teams colour from a thousand different colours, and be able to create your own flag using a paint program or something with the game.
Day/ Night:
There was a night cheat for the Ashes Edition, so it can be used properly in a match where it slowly gets darker to night as the game goes on.
Statistics:
A comprehensive collection of statistics would be great. When entering the game you should be able to enter your name so that you can continue on with your teams stats, or just play a practice game by turning stats off in options. Overall stats for the whole game should be seperate and they would be for the best not for a team as your name would be. But those records from your teams players would be there in the overall records.
Computer Intelliegence:
The computer must be able to place a field just like in real cricket. Whether it be test or one-day. If a batsman hits too many shots to the boundary in the one direction too quickly, then a fieldsman should be placed out there. (except they can't. this needs to be fixed too) But field placement should always be a bit random, no-one likes the same boring things. The same with bowling changes. Also when batting the computer should also sometimes decide to go for it. eg. if the run rate is slipping behind when chasing in a one-dayer. Or its the last 5-10 overs in the first innings of a one-dayer. Or even in a test where things are going too slowly and one batsman decides to slash out.
Shirt Numbers:
In one-day games you could put shirt numbers on the players backs so that we can quickly pick up who they are. They should be numbered from the original batting line-up. So if the batting order is changed they still keep their original numbers. eg. if player 15 is brought into the side then he will always have 15 on his back.
Different Bowling Techniques:
For each of the four different speeds there should be 2 different bowling styles. Different batting techniques would be good too, but differences in bowling are easier to see than batting, and I feel that the batting flow and technique needs alot more work than the bowling.
Making Players for Custom Teams:
All the extra's now come to good and fun uses when making your own teams. Everything should be selectable. eg. being able to select each item without one relating to another - batsman r/h or l/h, and bowler r/h or l/h. Because some players like Curtly Ambrose play both. Also if the are an all-rounder you should be able to select their bowling speed.
I think that for the real cricket freaks out there who want to *really* customize their team (eg. me) for each player you should be able to set things such as how long their run up is, how wide they start their run up from the wickets and how close they get to the wickets when they bowl (Shane Warne would start quite wide not far back from the wickets, and walk in ending up quite close to the wickets). Also what kind of bowls a player can bowl, eg. if the leg spinners can bowl a flipper or wrong-in, or if off-spinners can bowl arm balls (I am SURE off spinners can't bowl wrong-ins) or whether fast bowlers bowl a slower ball or if they swing the ball.

There really is a long way to go in making an ultimate cricket game, but hopefully it won't be too long before the next step is taken in producing the cricket game we all want to play 24 hours a day.
I hope I haven't bored you with my lengthy comments but I really want the best possible game produced and hope my comments that have finally gotten themselves from my conscience to paper(computer in this case), don't go to waste.
Cameron Petie [email protected]

Thanks Cameron. I hope that the developers will take notice of what we, the consumers, want.
I would just like to say that I'm very appreciative of all the email I've been recieving with your support. I can no longer edit this page with the classy NotePad. I now have to use the ultimate in HTML engineering: WordPad!
Please email me with your ideas/comments. Thanks.
And the ideas continue....these one's from me...
When a batsman gets out a scoreboard should come up and then you click on the batsman whom you want to come in next. This would be useful when, and I quote, "NZ have done really well and in the 38th over are 2/190. Next in is S.Fleming in your line up but really you want C.Cairns to come in and hit a few for 6!" (thanks to Jeff Doidge for that).
Also, I think it is too annoying when you want to change bowlers. I think this is what should happen: When you press 'B' a bowling scoreboard slides onto the screen on top of the game (screen doesn't go up to score board and you can see the game through it, if you know what I mean). The bowlers stats come up, and if it's the beginning of the over, you just simply click on the bowler you want and the scorecard goes away. At the moment, it takes too long to change bowlers, and when you do, you don't see what there bowling figures are unless you go to another screen and view them. This way it would take a couple of seconds.

And some more from Jeff Doidge...

 I have played about four games on my computer with a friend of mine and despite being able to post such a big score against the computer (300+) I could only manage a total of between 50 and 90 runs against my friend. He ( and I did too ) constantly pitched the ball up ( yorkers ) and as a result got mostly bowled or I played on. This as far as I'm am concerned is the New biggest problem the game has. Even agaist the computer using this tactic in conjuntion with my varying pace tactic has stopped any ( Computer ) Team scoring more than 130 runs. There has to be something done about this. Even in real cricket my favourite ball to bowl is the yorker. But it is a suprise ball not a stock ball for many reasons. If you lose your lenth your gone, too full and its a full toss, to short and it a half volley. Either way you will probably be hit to the fence for four. This problem could be fixed, maybe if the bowler was penalised for bowling too many in one over ( that is by a bad ball being bowled eg one to many yorkers turns into a rank full toss.) or allowing the batsman to become " familliar with the type of delivery so that if he gets bat to ball it will go racing out into the outfield or for four or even six ( This representing that it was a bad ball ) any way that this kind of bowling must be stopped. Different balls MUST be bowled to allow different shots. To encourage the bowler to do this there should be EQUAL chances in getting out to different deliveries eg Standard off cutter might take out off stump, an inswinging ball aimed at leg stump might take leg or get an LBW but would encourage the batsman to on drive or leg glance, in doing this it will make the game more realistic and " If its in the game..." well you know the rest. Anyway I look forward to playing a cricket game where I set up a fielder at deep mid wicket or fine leg, drop one short and have the batsman caught out deep Hooking, or reversely constantly frustrating the bowler but avoiding his trap by putting the short ball over the fence.

And Trung quickly adds...
They should have Richie Benaud, Tony Greig and Bill Lawry all as commentators.
There should be 2 players allowed to play on the keyboard.

And a guy who is called either Rodney or Brenton says:
I think that they should have practice nets where you can practice batting or bowling in the nets,and,just before the game the commentator should go through the 2 lineups and show them with each player having a bat if they're a batsman, a ball if they're a bowler or both if they're an all rounder.Also perhaps they could have an option so you can build you own stadium.

Here are some more ideas from me...
A couple of times in this page I have discussed the use of charging the ball. I would now like to just clarify how I think it should work.
When using the normal shots (ctrl/alt+keypad) you are trying to hit along the ground. Of course that doesn't mean that it will go along the ground all the time if you choose the wrong shot or if the ball is too high or something to hit along the ground. Anywho, when you want to hit it hard, you press crtl+alt together and when the ball gets to you you press ctrl+keypad or alt+keypad depending on what shot you want to play. Example, a spin bowler is going to bowl on a little bit short. You press ctrl+alt together and when the ball gets to you you press alt+9, the sweepshot. This would produce one of those cool sweep shots that go in the air over square leg.
Now, if you want to charge it you do it slightly different. When you want to start charging, you press ctrl+alt together and hold it down. If you want to stop charging you let go of those two keys and do your shot as per normal. If you want to go through with it though, you keep ctrl+alt held down and when the ball is hit to you you press a keypad number. Example, a fast bowler is going to bowl just outside off stump. You step back a pace to give yourself some room and then hold down ctrl+alt and start charging and then press 1 (off drive) when the ball is in the right position. This lofts the ball over the infeild and one bounce into the long-off boundry for four.
If you starting charging to early and the computer is bowling, the computer should adjust its bowl accordingly. The charge shot has a much greater chance of getting out on. One reason is it is in the air so can be caught, but the chance of getting a nick or getting bowled should be increased quite a lot so you don't just charge every ball.
The camera angle that is used on TV when the bowler is bowling should be utilised. It should start over the bowler's head and move in with the bowler. If it goes through to the keeper of if it is blocked the camera should stay the same. When it is hit it should change to a zoomed out camera. When the ball is thrown back to the stumps the side on cam mentioned earlier should be used so you can see if the run will be close or not and you'll know whether to dive.
Also, a small thing that bothers me (it's always the small things) is that on TV the number of overs changes just after the ball is hit or if it goes past the bat (eg. 15.3 changes to 15.4 when the ball is struck). I would like it like that in the next cricket, although it's not of course a vital aspect. :)

And now something from Asif Pesnani:
 I think they could have definetly have more types of shots. I play and finish off the match with basically three shots pull late cut and the back drive. To play the sweep is almost impossible. Sixes should look realstic not the top edge for six.
When you get a new game the player should have skills and all his stats matches runs ave etc should be at 0. Then as he plays more his stats should change. Stats should only be of the game.
The bowling could do with improvement. The leg spinnner could have the style of that one in C96 and the off spinner the one in C97. There should be atleast 10-20 different bowling styles.
Fielding is poor. Fielder fielding with one hand always!!!
Note from me:Right handed people should use their right hand, left their left hand when fielding
U cant have the fielder at boundary.
More knicks cuts
Umpires should have a human touch could make silly mistakes with lbw and caught behind decisions.
overall light towers could be shown
10 stadiums like in football or baseball games
inclusion of tournaments such as
World Cup
Tri nation series in which you could set the number of matches
Test Series
Odi tours
4 or 5 nation tournamanet
Hongkong super 6's
Super 8's
this would make the game more exciting
They could have 5-6 patches of 1-2 mb each to improve the game before C99 is released so people can't wait for the next release thus boosting their sales
And now just another note from me regarding the sweep shot:
I was taught by a guy I know how to do it. He can do sweep shots and reverse sweep shots. I have only tried with a left hander against a spinner but it can be done with a right hander even against medium pacers and maybe even fast bowlers occasionally.
Anyway, and remember this is with a left hander, when a spinner is bowling one move so the ball will hit the pitch about 7mm (screen distance) and step back from the ball about the same distance so, on the screen the ball diagonally down and right from the batsman. Then, at the appropriate time, hit alt+7 (alt+9 for right hander). Just practice :)

And I recieved another big email from Cameron Petie:
This is in relation to too many yorkers being bowled.

To fix this problem the system of bowling should be changed slightly. I believe an extra bowling attribute should be added called accuracy. So that when a bowler chooses his delivery, moves the arrow to where he wants it to bounce and comes in to bowl the arrow moves according to the bowlers accuracy. A yorker could then become a half volley or a full toss, and could also move to the off or leg side as well(all depending on the accuracy rating). The amount the arrow moves would not be great but would be enough so that a batsman could hit a yorker, or that a ball going to hit the stumps would miss, or that a ball a few feet away from off stump moves further out for a wide. It will move further away from the origin if the accuracy rating is 1 compared to the little movement with 10. Accuracy would be random, unknowing, and obviously much better for players sick of seeing the same deliveries bowled in exactly the same spots. It will now be hard to choose a batsman useless at bowling because you can expect a few wides and very little on the stumps, instead placing the ball at will.

Also to help this problem is look at a batsmans focus. At the moment focus is how long it takes for a batsman to strike balls cleanly and miss less often. This can be taken further by including it into individual deliveries. It will work by how many deliveries a bowler bowls of the same type. For example, if 3 yorkers are bowled in a row at the same batsman with a good focus, he would then start playing the yorker very well. The same if you bowled the same delivery every second ball. Short outswingers outside off stump that keep getting missed would not for very much longer, unless they were a hopeless batsman. But this type of focus would differ from overall focus (although they still work as one, because a batsman in after a while will not be the same as at the start) in that if that type of delivery is not bowled for a while to the particular batsman it will slowly (slowly in that I mean about 5 overs for a batsman of good focus) lose its focus to that delivery. This makes it so much better for a bowling team now because they can set batsman up. eg. By using a legspinner bowling legspinners continuely he then starts getting smashed so bowls a flipper online and has a high chance of getting a wicket.(ala Shane Warne). Now a spinner and pacer can work much better together because the batsman will be facing different types of deliveries each over.

Another point which has just come to mind is the overall total of attributes. 50 as it is at the moment is quite good, because you don't want to play with or against teams with 10 in each attribute for every player. The problem though that I came across is that most attributes were for batsman. That meant that to produce a team that resembles real-life players is not possible. Bowlers are fine, and unathletic batsman that don't bowl are fine, but good batsman like the Waughs that can run, field and bowl quite well don't fit. You need 60 points for them. To fix this I recommend more attributes for the bowlers. In my last message about the ultimate cricket game I had 9 attributes with 2 (ability & movement) for the bowlers. If accuracy is used that will give 3 for the bowlers and a nice overall total of 10 attributes. When added up I reckon 70 a good maximum for all types of players. You can only be sensible when making your own teams, for trying to make everyone 50 in your team I think is rediculous. All players are different and should have their attributes different too. The more versitile players with higher totals and conistent attributes should be just right for one-day teams, and the more specialised players with lower totals should be just right for the tests. I reckon that the 10 attributes that I have come up with should be exactly what is needed to produce the most accurate teams we all want.
Perhaps, you could say that a player is an all-rounder and then have say 5 extra points to distribute. However, batting and bowling skills must have a minimum of 5 points each so people couldn't say someone's an allrounder just so a batsman can have other high skill ratings.

The great thing about Cricket besides its skill, patience and determination, is its unpredictability. Even though a batsman with an ability of 10 has the chance of getting caught behind off a normal of 1 in a 1000, it could still happen on the first delivery. And thats the way the next cricket game should be made. The same applies to bowling accuracy, six hits, fielding, computer intelligence, and everthing else. You never know what's going to happen next.

And on an unrelated topic....this page has now exceded 10000 words!

And some ideas now from David Brown:
 - Save your custom field placements
- Bigger range of commentary from Richie Benaud
- 12th man option for injured or tired players
- Real weather. eg. rain sends players of the field and reduces overs in ODI's and time in test matches.
- In tests and ODI's have drinks and tea breaks
- You should be able to choose where the wicket keeper stands
- In the options menu they should have the option of viewing graphs/worms of your teams performance against the worm/graph of the opposition at the same stage of the game
- You should be able to design/choose colours for your team's uniform

Good News!
I was told by a couple of people (thanks!) that EA were taking suggestions for the next cricket game. I immediately emailed them directing them to this page and about 30 mins later I got the following email back:

Hi Daniel
That's excellent.
We've had a look at your suggestions and many of those and others are already being developed in our World Cup Cricket 99 game. Check out our site for more info in the coming weeks.
regards
EA Sports

Thanks to EA for that and their web page is at http://www.easports.com.au so check that out.
Anyway, the good points are that they are putting at least some of these ideas in the game (have your say - email me your suggestions) and the title of the game: World Cup Cricket 99, ie. it looks like there will be a world cup in the game! Werhoo!

Ok, more stuff from me :)
Currently you know what kind of ball the bowler will bowl (outswinger etc) before the bowler has bowled it to you. I propose this: you see what ball is going to be bowled when it leaves the bowler's hand. This would make batting a lot more challenging as you would have to be a lot quicker in deciding which shot to play.
The bowlers skill at hiding their different balls would depend on their bowling skill and the batsman's ability to see what ball will be bowled will also be determined by their batting skill. Each bowler would have a set of balls they could bowl (no more wrong-in bowling off spinners!!) and, say that Shane Warne was bowling, each ball you would assume to be a leg spinner. Say after 4 balls Shane decides to bowl the wrong-in. Depending on the batsman's skill, the following would be shown as the ball leaves his hand:
A poor batsman: Leg-spinner
An alright batsman: ??? (not sure but it's probably not a leg spinner)
A good batsman: Wrong-in
Of course even bad batsman can pick the different balls sometimes but whether the batsman does pick it up depends mainly on the skill of the batsman and the skill of the bowler.

And a wishful one from Mr. Skinster:
 An idea could be to Upgrade our old cricket games , instead of paying $90 a year for the same game with a few new features!. You should be able to upgrade it from C97ate To C98 for $30 .
Aah, that would be nice :)

Brenton adds...
I think that when it shows you the conditions it should have how fast the outfield is which would mean how fast the ball goes along the outfield.Also when the ball is new it should come off the bat better but move around a bit more and as the innings goes along it should get harder to see and in some cases they change it.

And here's another big lot of ideas from Jahanzeb Khan. Thanks!

RUNNING:
right now when a batsman runs it look like he is wearing a skirt and running with holding the skirt up!!!!!
SPIN BOWLING:
how come an off spinner or a leg spinner can bowl a leg spin or off spin??? and gets so much turn that Shane Warne may consider retiring!!!! also the leg spinner must have a different bowling style.
PITCH:
right now the pitches doesn't feel any different. I can play on any of the three pitches and feel little or no difference.
FIELDING:
fielding is pathetic. a player should be able to dive and field reasonably well. like in Hard Ball where a fielder could dive at the right time and catch an impossible catch. also the fielder should be able to dive forward and while running can dive forward also. I also want to be able to keep the players on the boundaries.
LOFT SHOT:
the batsman should play a lofted shot by pressing the SHIFT button and not the CTRL+ALT button as suggested by others. also the charge option will be excellent. this can be done by pressing the CTRL+ALT button and would increase the chances of a boundary or a six and would also simultaneously increase the chances of a stumping or a caught behind.
WICKET KEEPER:
while a spinner is bowling the WK should stand closer too the wicket and be able to stump quickly.
STATS:
the stats r the must!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note from Daniel Flower: Heaps of people want stats! Please, if anyone from EA Cricket is reading this, PLEASE PUT THEM IN!!!
PINCH HITTER:
in the characteristics there should be an option of Pinch Hitter and a scale for it too. the higher the scale the player can hit a boundary that often but will also get out soon if plays too many loft shots. so that Shahid Afridi and Klusener will get out soon but Sanath Jayasuria will stay for a while but not hit that often a boundary. of course he can but we have to do some justice over here :)
UMPIRES:
what is the use of the leg umpire in c97???? can anybody tell me that? and the umpires should keeps their mouths shut plz.
FAST BOWLING:
how come a fast bowler can throw leg cutters and off cutters at full speed? I only saw Wasim Akram throw an off cutter at that speed in the 92 World Cup Final and that also once!!!!!! and what is the Yorker for? it is to make things difficult for the batsman. while in c97 it can be dispatched to the boundary w/ ease.
BOWLING:
the batsman should not know in advance where the ball is going to pitch. when the bowler runs and comes near the umpire then it should be known what the bowler is going to throw. that should also be known depending on the talent of the batsman. otherwise nothing should appear unless the batsman stays on the crease for a while. and where the ball is going to pitch should only come to the knowledge when the bowler releases the ball.
IMPROVEMENT:
if a batsman scores a 50 he should get a point and one of his batting related credits should increase by one. a 100 may give him 2 or 3 points. the case can be different for TEST matches. if a fielder takes a catch or causes a RUNOUT his fielding credit should be increased. but a score of less than his batting avg. ( which would be there because of Career Stats ) a -2 will be awarded to his batting credits and a -3 and -5 for a duck or a golden duck respectively.
CROWD:
the crowd needs a uplift altogether!!!! from the noise to the look of it.
CAMERA ANGLES:
some new TV style camera angles should be included. a sky camera would be cool but not a necessity.
FIELDING POSITIONS:
right now fielding positions r awarded by default according to the batting order. and the wicket keeper is at 7. u should be able to award a particular fielding position to every player by default.
TIMES:
there should be a clock. a match should start at 9 AM and end at around 6 PM depending on the weather. if there is overcast then 5 PM. a night match should start at 2 PM. this will help in test matches. also if there is cloud coverage then the chances of rain should increase. and in a test matches there should be random weather. may be sunny one day and the last day may be washed out. u should be able to play in any of the 9 TEST playing countries.

Thanks to David Reiss for these ideas:
 The players should have their numbers on their backs. Easy identification - I have difficulty telling the batsman on strike otherwise. (Possibly a mention on the screen of the current bowler and batsman would be good as well, but the numbers would be great for asthetics...)
I have found that the computer plays the same in Test matches as it does in one dayers - this is pretty damn useless if you're trying to have a serious test match.
They really should record more than 15 strokes played in the wagon wheel, you should be able to see both scorecards (batting & bowling for each team) at any time, and I agree strongly that they should keep records of your scores - that was the one thing I REALLY liked about the Brian Lara game... You get a real feeling of accomplishment when your favourite batsmen have averages around 70 runs or so... :-)

More ideas from jon:
they should use the channel9 logo to give a real tv style apprroach also they should use the whole channel 9 commentary team aswell as others like ian smith and michael holding to commentate.
the usage of real international grounds should be used and their should be different crowds and comentry for each eg.. maybe rubbish could be thrown onto the field.
night games.
world cup and world series.
larger field
new jerseys and players should be able to be created and moulded to look like real counterparts.
i think if the makers just have a look at the features on games such as nba live,nhl,and madden then they will be on their way to making the best game ever seen for cricket.

A few more from ABU
 1. Option between using the red and the white ball.
2. Option when the bowler can ask for a new ball.
3. The camera moves too fast when a four is hit . It is giving me a headache. Maybe a smoother movement just like the games in NBA, NFL, FIFA games. The one in cricket96 is perfect. Smooth transition after the ball is hit.

And what do you know, more from me:
The fielders should walk in with the bowlers for that more realistic feeling.
Player characteristics should include things such as which hats they prefer when fielding and batting without a helmet if they wear hats, which area they are strong in batting (eg if they are an on-side player) etc.
Sometimes bad balls should be bowled that can be smashed. For example, a part time bowler is bowling and he tries to bowl a yorker. On the screen, you see the arrow pointing around your feet where the bowler is trying to bowl. However, not being a very good bowler, he bowls it short and wide. When the ball leaves the bowler's hand, the arrow pointing to where the ball is going to pitch moves from yorker position to short outside the off-stump. You can then smash the ball. This is because there are many bad balls, such as short, wide, full tosses etc. bowled in a match, but are any on purpose? They are usually when the bowler is trying to do something special to trick the batsman, so by trying to bowl the yorker you could either bowl a good ball that's hard to play or it could become a full toss smashed to the boundry (this would also occur for a leg spinner for example trying to bowl the wrong-in). This would add the element of risk to bowling balls that are hard to hit for the batsman, probably increasing enjoyment of 2 player games.
In the above I mentioned the arrow where the bowler is trying to bowl the ball. I think it would be better if this didn't appear until it leaves the bowler's hand so the batting becomes more skillful and challenging, and also so you use more variety of shots seeing as at the moment you can position yourself making one shot playable on nearly every ball.
"Why don't you play on hard then?" I hear you asking (if anyone ever reads this, of course). Well, my answer is the way the graphics are it is hard to tell where the ball is half the time making it hard to play proper shots. Also it is hard sometimes to even know when the ball is in the air. In cricket 96 you could see easily, but the graphics in C97 somehow make it so you can't tell always; this should be fixed.
When running between wickets and you slide your bat, as mentioned earlier, the batsman should put in that little bit extra effort. However, maybe something like this should be implemented:
As your running towards the crease you see that you will make it easily so you just run in not worrying about sliding your bat and you turn around ready for overthrows or a misfield. There are overthrows, so you can easily take another run.
Now picture this scenario: You run a tight single. You see that it will be close so you slide your batting (press alt once) and make it and run past wickets a little bit. There are overthrows and despite the fact you've run a bit past the crease you can still make the extra run quite easily.
Now this time, you hit the ball straight to Jonty Rhodes and, for some reason, take off. You see that you are struggling so you press the alt key many times in quick succession showing that you are in a big hurry. Your sprinting towards the line, the camera flicks to the side angle, and about the same time that you cross the crease, the ball hits the stumps and ricochets off the stumps and rolls far enough that you could get an overthrow. However, since you were so desperate to get to the crease fast you ran 10 meters past the crease making it impossible to get that overthrow. Meanwhile, the umpire has called for the third umpire for a decision.
The reason I would like to see something like this is because at the moment every run is the same and there is no urgency in the running. Also, you can't just be urgent for every run as it will make you tired if you do it too much and also if you do you can miss out on overthrows and the like.
While on the subject of running, I think it would be good to have a 'Wait there' button. You hit the ball near a close fielder, hit the wait there button, the batsman says wait there, waiting, and heaps of things like that as not to get repetitive, and the batsmen take a stride down the pitch and wait. If the fieldsman picks it up, you press the up button and it yells 'NO!' and go back to your crease. Press down like you usually would to take the run if it is there and maybe the very occasional mix-up could occur with this. Or something like that.

More now from Michael Hall:
Weather: I have AB's cricket and that is quite old. When playing a one day or Test Match game, the actual covers came out on the ground and it poured with rain. The time ticked by and it was actually quite realistic. Something they DEFINATELY NEED in Cricket 99.
Fielding: The Fielders (Especially the Bowler) should not be able to take blinding catches all the time. This gets me quite angry as it is so unrealistic to see a player dive five meters to take a catch. Thats gotta go.
Bowling: Bowling should be more realistic, who has ever seen Tim May bowl a Leg Spinner when he is an off spin bowler. What a joke. Also, why the hell does a non bowler come on after the third over of the innings??? I mean, you dont see Mark Taylor come on and bowl the third over of an innings in Test Matches so why does it happen in this game??? I was playing an Ashes game against the Poms when I was batting, It was the third over of the first innings and on came Robert Croft. Why??? I hammered him all over the park but he just stayed on. Stupid really. I'm not having a go at EA what so ever, they are great at this kind of thing but I think they need to get rid of the bugs in the game to stop that kind of thing happenning. Now I feel alot better :o)

Daniel Broder sent this in:
Test Match
A) A test match should be a bit more realistic eg when hitting the ball in a test match it shouldn't be as hard a hit therefore making less fours and sixes.
B) You shouldn't be able to have many overs of 20 in a test match it should make it that the max amount of runs an over should be 15 but not deliberately maybe just by making a four in a one day match the equivelant to a two in a test.(if on 14 and you hit a six then it should go to 20 and the like.)
c) It shouldn't be able for four or more wickets to be taken in a test match as it is extremely rare that such a thing happens.
Dancing down the pitch and being able to hit every ball for four or six just isn't right. There must be a way to limit the scoring in one day and test matches.
ther also should be a way to control thw ran rate in C97 so it isn't too extreme.
this is a system that should make the scoring more acceptable
ONE DAY > TEST
huge 6 > 6
6 > 4
4 > 2 possible 3
3 > 1
2 > 1
1 > just a single (possible run out).
what i mean by this is for instance a 4 in a one day match isn't as powerful as a our would have to be in a test match. The equivelant for a four in a one day should be a 2 or 3 in a test.

mario the cynic sent in this important idea:
 there certainly ought to be a follow on in the tests. when i made 500/6 declared against the windies, and then dismissed them for 203 it was really unfortunate that i had to bat my 2nd innings. i declared as soon as atherton's wicket fell (26/2), and lost the match.

And more ideas from Andrew Johnson
They also need to have stats that build up when the side is used by either the computer or by the human player, and these stats should effect the points of each section i.e. when Mark Taylor had his bad run of low scores, his batting points should fall say from 9 to 7 and maybe some other areas like focus etc.
When the scores are displayed, in ODI they never show how many overs or how many out the sides were when there innings finished, and in tests, the show the score as the combined scores from the two innings. What they should do is do what they already do in showing the batting and bowling scorecards, but then show a match summary. In ODIs they should show what the score was for each side, including how many out and the overs faced by the batting sides in the match. It should also mention one or two players from either side from each innings who produced outstanding peformances like they do on the TV. The same for tests, but they should show the first and second innings seperately and both summaries should include the result e.g. Australia won by an innings and 12 runs or something like that.
The wicket-keepers pads should also be changed to the colour of their uniform in ODI matches and in tests, they should be a creamy colour and the shirts should have a 'V' which is the colour of that test side e.g. West Indies should have a maroon 'V'.
They also need to have a variety of tours to go on. These should include a test series of 3 or 5 tests, and a ODI series of say 5 to 7 games. These tours should have different stadiums, scenery, pitches etc. according to each countrie's type of climate e.g. England should have low bounce, seaming wickets, whereas India should have flat, turning wickets.
Different crowds would also be good as there could be different atmospheres like the crowds in India absolutely screaming when Tendulker hits a six or Srinath gets a wicket. The crowds should go wild if it is their own team, more so if something vital to the game happens, e.g. Warne gets Tendulker and expoes the Indian tail, an Aussie crowd so go wild, and an Indian crowd should make a mild applause, maybe become silent from their usual boyant mood.

A must for Cricket 99 is for the computer side to be given some sort of a "brain". At the moment, they can't slide their bats and go for stupid second and third runs on occasions. I have two clear examples of stupidity. Firstly, when I was batting against New Zealand in an ODI, the bowler for the entire over bowled short pitch balls down the leg side and even though I kept hitting them for 4 or 6, he kept bowling there and the field was never changed. Now who would bowl in the same spot for an over in international cricket if they were getting hit all over the place. The other example was when New Zealand was batting after I had scored 4/378 from 50 overs. The batsmen came out and they just blocked the ball or hit it straight to a fieldsman and eventually got out from stupid shots. After 15 overs, on a batsmens pitch, N.Z. was 3/26 and S.Fleming had faced 39 balls and only scored 3 runs! Now surely when a side has to chase a huge score like 378, they should try to get off to a flying start. To do this in Cricket 99, they need to give the computer side some intelligence so they can look at the scoreboard and see whether they need to speed up the run rate or if they need to conserve wickets or whatever, and they also need to be able to change the field to plug gaps in the field if a bowler continues to be hit in the same place.
They also need to modify the night cheat so that is starts as day for the first innings and darkens toward the end of it and then becomes dark by the first ten overs of the second innings. And the ground during the night part of the match needs to look different to the day part e.g. more shadows, lights shining, ground should be brighter etc. A few shadows too that move around as the sun moves across the sky during the day would be good as well for realism.
Another thing that would be good would be to add more commentators. This way Richie could do the first ten overs say with Greg Chappell and then Bill Lawry and Tony Grieg could do the next ten and they could swap around etc., maybe include a Geoffery Boycott if England is playing or a Joel Garner when the West Indies are playing. The commentary would still need to be increased in Richie's case but additional commentators adds variety and keeps interest in it.
The THIRD UMPIRE IS A MUST! A good place for it could be near the scoreboard, say the lights just above.
When an appeal is made, the appropriate umpire ( whichever end the runout was at, which is another story ) should turn to the scoreboard and signal for the third umpire. The replay should be shown on the scoreboard and then the stadium view should come up showing the fielders in a huddle and the two batsmen together separate from the fielders. If the decision is out, the batsmen should be shown walking off, which should be the same for all outs, whether by the field umpires or the third umpire. If not out, everyone should be shown walking back into place.
In tests, the umpire should indicate when an above shoulder height ball is bowled and this should be shown somewhere on the screen or given verbally by the umpire. If more then two of these balls are bowled in an over, then the square leg umpire should call a no-ball and do so for the rest of that over.

And more ideas from Cameron Petie:
In Cricket 97 you could only play 2 player against one another with keyboard and joystick/ gamepad, by a network, or by using your modem. My idea is that 2 players could play on the same team against the computer. When batting each player would one particular batsman, and when one player gets out he can be the next batsman. So that way each player can bat with their particular batsman and even make it possible for a player to bat with one batsman all the way through. That would be an extrodinary effort of course. There could be flexibility too, in that each player could choose batsman to bat with by assigning player 1 or 2 to each player. Then a particular player could play with 2 batsman at once. There should also be an option to change a batsman from one player to another.
When bowling though, each player alternates (bowling from one particular end). So both players could bowl a particular bowler but only if he changed ends.
For fielding, the player who is bowling would operate the bowler and keeper, and the other player would operate the rest.
This sort of thing could also be incorporated over the modem or network. That way as well as playing 1 on 1 you could now play 2 on 1 and 2 on 2.
Check out the Hints & Tips Section for info about doing this sort of thing with Cricket 97.

And some more important ones from Andrew Johnson:
They should get the computer to keep their frontline bowlers on at the start for more then one over. In an ordinary ODI ot test game, McGrath and Gillespie would bowl at least five overs each unless they get hit for 20 from their first three overs. In Cricket 97ATE, McGrath and Gillespie bowl an over each, maybe 4 or 5 runs each off of their overs and then Mark Taylor, who has no bowling attributes comes on and just gets carted. It just isn't right! And during the middle overs, the computer should bowl their bowlers in spells and be able to know how many overs are left and how many overs all their bowlers have so the frontline bowlers can bowl at the end, and they shouldn't bowl anyone with less then 5 for bowling until they have bowled all those above so the bowling is of a somewhat challenging nature. Having played the West Indies and New Zealand, two top line bowlers, D.Vettori and P.Symcox (from the real teams) were not bowled and the team's keepers were bowled instead (bowling = 0). This is just got to be fixed!
And you should know when a bowling change is made. Also there should be deteriation of the pitch and weather conditions should vary, affecting both the pitch and the players,e.g. hot weather should dry out the pitch and players tire quicker, and wet rainy weather should cause the pitch to retain a lot of moisture(both rain and sweat under the covers)and the players won't tire as quick as normal. Another interesting feature would also be watching the players have a quick drinks break during ODI and Test matches. This could increase the fielder's focus and maybe the batsmen lose focus just before and after drinks breaks as well as the main session breaks, lunch, tea and stumps.
By the way, the patch for Cricket 97ATE did not update the statistics of Australia and it didn't fix the World Challenge table so if any EA Sports people get to read this, get a patch to actually fix the problems the first patch didn't fix.

Akshay thinks that:
[1]. before the game starts there should be a world map displayed and the places where cricket is possible should be marked on the map. the conditions of the places should also apply. For example if we click on sharjah then the ground we get should be dry, weather should be hot etc. if we have day/night match facility in the stadium then we should be given the choice i.e either the user wants day/night match or only day. If there no such facility then the user has to compulsarily play day match.
[2]. day/night game should have the facility of playing with the white ball, coloured dress etc
[3]. different grounds should have different features like :-
(a) stadium intake capacity
(b) seating arrangement styles
(c) light tower arrangement (if present)
(d) grass style,colour ie (dark or light green or brownish green etc) depending on the weather conditions.
[4] if the weather is bad i.e if its going to rain then please reduce the overs i.e if it rains. sometimes match can also be abandoned and both the teams can be awarded equal points.
[5] now the world challenge . In c97 the world challenge is restricted to only 3 teams and these teams can play each other only once. this should be rectified. i.e any number of teams should be allowed to play in the world challenge for any number of times. we should also have the facility of more than one final.
[6] At the end of the game man of the match award should be given and man of the series should be awarded at the end of the series.
[7] At the end of the match golden moments of the match should be displayed.

And a bit of a general comment from BJ Anderson:
If anyone has seen FIFA 98, they will realise the things EA sports are capable of.......................
They have very, very real 3d graphics
And the commenators say "Great save by ....... Bosnich"
I could see Richie saying "Great shot by...... Hooper", etc..........

And from Dave Klein:
 1) Before each delivery, I should be able to tell who is bowling and who is batting, and see their current game stats easily if I want to. This just seems to be basic common sense.
2) Test matches should follow real time. There has to be a clock, tea breaks, lunch interval, break at dusk, come back at 11am the next day, etc etc, otherwise it is just a really long ODI, isn't it? While on the subject of time, could we maybe link shadows on the field to the time of day? i.s. in the afternoon the shadows lengthen, etc.
3) Weather has GOT to change over the course of ANY match. That's too easily done to not include. They can easily program the weather to change slightly after each over, resulting in a progressive change over time.
4) Keyboard support should be included for 2 player mode (let the second person be able to use the left hand side Ctrl and Alt keys, and use the QWE/ASD/ZXC nine-key set on the left side of the keyboard). There's just too much of a disadvantage for the person who is condemned to use the mouse or joystick.
Remember - check out the Hints & Tips Page to see how to combat this!
5) ONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO BAT WHILE WATCHING THE DELIVERY FROM THE BATTER'S PERSPECTIVE!!! This is one I could NOT BELIEVE wasn't included. It is quite disconcerting to have to bat while looking over the bowler's shoulder! I want to be able to watch the bowler come at me, and judge the incoming delivery as it nears me. This would not only make it easier to bat, but would also enhance the realism of the game. Here in the States all our baseball games have made that switch; nowadays every game has the primary batting view from the batsman's perspective.
6) Less herky-jerky movement on the part of the players; smooth out the animations, perhaps jack up the maximum playing resolution to 800x600 with 3D card support.

The above suggestions are in addition to the obvious ones, which you have covered rather well: improve the player behavior/performance, make bowling/batting more realistic, introduce different grounds (I'd love to play a Test at Lord's!), etc etc.

Keep the email coming in....